Baseball: Ben Cherington’s blunder in Andrew Bailey trade a mystery

No NFL coach would pass up a chance to read the opposition’s playbook, and it stands to reason that the same would apply in any sport.

Which makes Ben Cherington’s blunder in the Andrew Bailey trade a complete mystery.

In “Moneyball,” a book every baseball executive is assumed to have read at some point in his, or her, life, author Michael Lewis writes of the Athletics’ philosophy regarding the position that has been come to be known as “closer.”

Billy Beane believed that closers were vastly overrated and overpriced because the save is essentially a bogus statistic made to sound important by its title. Beane’s viewpoint was, quoting from the book:

“You could take a slightly above-average pitcher and drop him into the closer’s role, let him accumulate some gaudy number of saves, then sell him off. You could, in essence, buy a stock, pump it up with false publicity, and sell it off for much more than what you’d paid for it.”

If that doesn’t describe Bailey, then nothing does. Knowing the way the A’s think about closers, Cherington made the trade anyway.

And it hasn’t worked. That’s the bad news. The good news is that it’s not that hard to find slightly above-average pitchers. The Red Sox seem to have several hanging around. In fact, that’s what bullpens are — warehouses for slightly above-average pitchers.

So, Cherington’s search for a closer should not be all that strenuous, and not being able to find a “lights-out” closer would not be crippling to the Red Sox’ hopes of winning the AL East, or just making the playoffs. Look at it this way — Boston hasn’t found a closer yet, and still has a better record than the teams that have one.

Baseball Jeopardy
Answers

1. He holds the Red Sox record for most stolen bases in a season by a switch hitter.

2. These two pitchers are the only Red Sox to have played college baseball at the University of Massachusetts.

3. The two left-handed sluggers who are the only Red Sox players to have hit home runs off Greg Maddux.

Questions below.

Sorry, BobbyBobby Valentine is owed an apology by somebody, or somebodies. Remember when Valentine left Jon Lester in to take an 11-run beating last July 22? The manager was ripped for “showing up” the veteran southpaw, and in his next seven starts, Lester was 3-3 with a 3.88 ERA. John Farrell has done nothing but treat Lester with kid gloves, and in his last seven starts this season, the lefty is 1-4, 7.30. A little tough love isn’t such a bad thing after all, perhaps. … An early happy birthday to Eddie Kasko, the former infielder, manager and farm director who turns 81 on Thursday. Kasko managed the Sox from 1970 through 1973 and is one of just three men to manage the team for at least four years and never have a losing record. Terry Francona and Don Zimmer are the others. … It is obvious that something’s going on with Will Middlebrooks, and there are several possibilities as to what that is. One of them is his wrist — his season ended prematurely last year when he broke it when hit by a pitch, and wrists can take a long, long time to recover. David Ortiz injured a wrist at the end of May 2008, and it was a year before his pre-injury power returned. The same thing happened to Hall of Famer Carl Yastrzemski, who hurt his wrist in 1971 and played through it. While that was going on, Yastrzemski hit two home runs between July 17, 1971, and July 22, 1972. … Switch-hitting is a valuable attribute, I guess. What about Jarrod Saltalamacchia, though? He is hitting .187 from the right side since coming to Boston, and just .168 the last two seasons. He could do that hitting left-handed against southpaws, doesn’t it seem? … With Mike Napoli having dropped out of the race-to-the-record doubles contest, Orioles third baseman Manny Machado has taken over as the top contender to erase former Red Sox outfielder Earl Webb’s mark of 67, set in 1931. Through Friday’s games, Machado had 33 and was on pace for 72. Webb had 36 through the same number of games in ’31.

Leaving ’em strandedDustin Pedroia is such an icon, and justifiably so, that it is risky to point out any flaws he may have.

He has one this year, though, and it is substantial enough to suggest that he should not be the Red Sox’ No. 3 hitter.

With the season not halfway done, Pedroia has stranded an astounding 45 runners in scoring position with two out. In contrast, Ortiz — the Sox cleanup hitter — has stranded 15. There is a difference in at-bats — Pedroia had 291 through Friday, Ortiz 216 — but that does not account for Pedroia’s overabundance of strands.

The team record, an unofficial one, is 80 strands, and it was done by a really good hitter — Adrian Beltre in 2010. Only two other Sox batters have had more than 70 in a season. They are Ortiz in 2011 (71) and Julio Lugo (77) in 2007.

Rough road
Ex-Red Sox Kevin Youkilis, Ramon Ramirez and Kelly Shoppach were all on the move last week, none of them in the direction they wished to go.

The Mariners released Shoppach, a pain-in-the-caboose from the day he first joined the Sox in 2005. Boston took him in the second round of the 2001 draft, and he could catch, but was an offensive liability, like many catchers these days.

Shoppach struck out 623 times in 1,614 at-bats. He had two triples and one stolen base in 571 career games, all of those coming in 39 games with the Sox last season, before they traded him to the Mets for Pedro Beato.

Youkilis will be out for three months with back surgery. Perhaps his career is over. Perhaps his back issues are what have kept sending him to the disabled list for the last four seasons. Starting with 2010, Youkilis has played in only 372 of a possible 560 games, earning about $40 million — counting a half-season’s salary this year — in that span.

And Brent Lillibridge, the utility man Boston got when Youkilis was traded to the White Sox, just got traded by the Cubs to the Yankees, who needed organizational depth with Youkilis out of the picture for a while.

Ramirez is a great example of why putting together a bullpen is a general manager’s nightmare. Sox general manager Theo Epstein got him from the Royals for Coco Crisp after the 2008 season, when the emergence of Jacoby Ellsbury made Crisp obsolete.

Through July 2009, Ramirez gave up seven earned runs in 35 innings (1.80 ERA), and Epstein looked like a genius. In 2010, his ERA was 4.46 when the Sox essentially gave him away to the Giants at the trade deadline, then he helped them win a World Series with an 0.67 ERA down the stretch.

Once again, he’s a yard sale item after being released by the Giants.

Jeopardy Questions
1. Who is Otis Nixon? The switch-hitting center fielder had 42 steals for the 1994 Red Sox.

2. Who are Jeff Reardon and Ed Connolly? Reardon, from Dalton, pitched for Boston from 1990-92. Connolly, a New Yorker, was with the Sox in 1964.

3. Who are Brian Daubach and Ortiz? Ortiz hit his home run at Wrigley Field in 2005; Daubach went deep off Maddux in Atlanta during the 2000 season.

Catching up with …
Tall righty Kyle Snyder is a minor league pitching coach in the Rays’ farm system; professional pinch runner Jesus Tavarez is managing the Giants’ affiliate in the Dominican Summer League; and outfielder Lee Tinsley, one of the few players Boston traded to get twice, is a minor league coach for the Cubs.

Andy Tomberlin, an outfielder who the Red Sox once hoped would be a 1990s Mike Carp, is the hitting coach for the White Sox’ Class A team in Kannapolis, N.C.; knuckleball catcher Josh Bard works in the Dodgers’ player personnel department; and third base coach Mike Cubbage is a special assignment scout for Tampa Bay.